It looks like coronavirus is here for the long haul and despite lockdowns being lifted – and reintroduced – the bean counters in companies are looking at the advantages of ditching large, corporate headquarters and allowing employees to work from home. Total breaking up of the workforce is not always possible, but one London company is actively looking at ditching its expensive West End office, working out where geographically its employees live and creating regional hubs for presence meetings between the team and the clients.
Many years ago, I handled the public relations for a London-based virtual office company and then took on the marketing communications for is international counterpart The Global Office Network. Whether or not these virtual offices can handle a surge in business I have no idea, but I can predict the big property landlords are going to catch a cold. The proliferation of services such as Zoom, Webex and Google Meet means that working from home does not equate to working alone, but there is a fair bit of groundwork to be done before video meetings can operate satisfactorily.